You never know the bond you have with a sibling until they are dying.

But what if you could give them a second chance at life?

Bob Parfitt took the leap of faith when his sister, Natalie Whiteman, learned that she needed a kidney transplant in 1975.

“Natalie found out she had kidney problems and one day, she called me and said, ‘Bob, what are you doing next week?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, Nat, why?’ and she said, ‘Would you come down and give me a kidney?’ I said, ‘OK, I’ll fly out Sunday.’ ”

“We were very close,” Parfitt said. “I would have given her anything.”

Without hesitation, the Coaldale native boarded a plane for North Carolina, got tested and was determined to be a match for his sister.

On March 19, 1975, in the Baptist Hospital in North Carolina, a 35-year-old Parfitt became a living kidney donor, giving his older sister a chance at watching her daughters grow up.

His sister’s operation was one of three that occurred that day, with hers being the only successful transplant.

The surgery took approximately three hours to complete for Parfitt and five hours for Natalie.

At that time, living organ donation was a complex surgery, with a large incision made on Parfitt’s back to remove the left kidney.

“They sawed through my back and when I woke up, nobody was there (in his hospital room) so I was walking the halls and a doctor saw me,” he said, remembering that he asked why he was out of bed. “ ‘I’m going to see my sister,’ I said, and he told me forget it, she’s in the ICU, but also you can’t be out of bed.

“From then on he and everybody called me Tiger.”

The nickname was fitting, whether or not the staff realized it, since Parfitt’s alma mater’s mascot was the Tiger.

Parfitt remained in the hospital until March 26 before being discharged to his sister’s home for further recovery.

“I wasn’t able to do anything but I had a wonderful brother-in-law. He took me around,” he said.

His sister remained in the hospital for an additional week before returning home.

In April, Parfitt returned to Pennsylvania and soon began working towards resuming daily life, serving as the editor of the Times News, a position he held until September 2006, and enjoying a variety of sports, with his favorite being golf.

Following the donation, Parfitt’s doctor did routine scans to make sure his remaining kidney was functioning properly.

Natalie also resumed her life, watching her girls become adults and enjoying time with her family.

In an article published in the Times News in April 1975, it said that Natalie “for the first time in years, is enjoying ‘a new life’ thanks to the tremendous sacrifice of a brother who cares.”

The siblings continued their strong bond through the years, living for each day that was never guaranteed.

They talked on the phone, visited when they could and even made surprise appearances at milestone events, including Bob’s induction into the Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

“My sister got 29 years out of that kidney,” Parfitt said, noting that one of the last times he saw her, she told him that she was tired and he could tell time together was coming to an end.

Natalie passed away on Aug. 23, 2004, at her home in Winston-Salem at the age of 67.

Now, 50 years later, Parfitt still smiles as he remembers giving his sister a gift that was more precious than any store could provide.

The 85-year-old now resides in the White Bear section of Summit Hill with his wife, Marigrace Heyer, and has been having some kidney-related issues of his own, but when asked if he would have changed anything about his decision to donate his kidney, he said that he wouldn’t have.

One thing that Parfitt would tell people if asked about becoming an organ donor: “They have updated everything now. Definitely do it.”